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Arithmetic Teaching Apparatus

Flash Cards

Instructive playing cards were made in England from the early 1700s. Card playing was frowned upon in most Victorian schoolrooms, but special instructive cards found a place in some schools. By the twentieth century, flash cards were used to relieve the monotony of drill in arithmetic. Sometimes, they were carefully graduated to accommodate the increasing skills of children. In the 1960s, advocates of educational reform encouraged students to think more abstractly, reworking the presentation used in flash cards to meet the standards of the “New Math” of that era.

From the 1950s, particularly after the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1958, American mathematicians and mathematics educators introduced a variety of reforms in mathematics teaching dubbed “The New Math.” This set of flash cards reflects the way of presenting subtraction problems that emerged.

The set consists of fifty cards, printed with subtraction problems on each side. The problems are written crosswise, with a box for the answer. The solution is printed in red in the upper left corner on the back. Another card lists basic subtraction facts (vertically), and three cards give work sheets and directions.

From the 1950s, particularly after the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1958, American mathematicians and mathematics educators introduced a variety of reforms in mathematics teaching dubbed “The New Math.” This set of flash cards reflects the way of presenting addition and subtraction problems that emerged.

The set consists of flash cards showing sums written out horizontally on one side and differences written out horizontally on the other. A blank square indicates where the answer is to go. The cards are numbered from 1 to 81, with several missing and some duplicates. One unnumbered card may be card one. The cards are cut off at one corner, like punch cards. Another card lists on one side "Basic Addition Facts" for sums as large as 9 + 9, and "Basic Subtraction Facts" on the reverse side. Two further cards provide explanation.

An explanation card for a similar set of flash cards for teaching multiplication and division is included, but none of these cards. Seven further cards, apparently from another set, give sums and differences written vertically.

A mark on the cardboard box holding the cards reads: MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY (/) SPRINGFIELD (/) MASSACHUSETTS. Another mark reads: NEW MATH(/)FLASH CARDS. Another mark reads: ADDITION-SUBTRACTION. A further mark reads: [copyright] 1965. The set has the maker’s number: 7020.